Sherrodsville gets facility to recycle fracking water

Tuesday

Nov 19, 2013 at 10:59 PM

A Youngstown company, Iron Eagle Enterprises, will be opening a water recycling terminal by the end of November to serve oil and gas drillers operating in the area.The facility, at 20 Church St. near the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway tracks, will be the first third-party treatment facility permitted in the state.

Jon Baker TimesReporter.com staff writer @jbakerTR

A Youngstown company, Iron Eagle Enterprises, will be opening a water recycling terminal by the end of November to serve oil and gas drillers operating in the area.

The facility, at 20 Church St. near the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway tracks, will be the first third-party treatment facility permitted in the state.

The treatment operations will be managed by RETTEW Flowback (RFI), an engineering firm with offices in Canton that also provided site design and facility permitting.

The facility will recycle wastewater created by oil and gas drilling operations in Carroll County. The wastewater will be treated first and filtered to remove contaminants. The recycled water will be hauled back to the producers to continue the cycle of drilling and stimulating wells (shale or conventional).

The facility will be able to treat 14,000 barrels of water per day. A barrel contains 42 gallons of water.

Mike McKenzie, director of operations for Iron Eagle, said his company is investing several million dollars in the project. Existing buildings at the site will be utilized, and equipment will be brought in to recycle the wastewater.

"Some of the equipment is new to the industry," he said. "It had to be built before it was shipped."

Most of the equipment will be shipped to Sherrodsville this week and next.

The plant will employ between 10 and 15 people, as well as truck drivers. Iron Eagle will have between 25 and 35 trucks operating in and out of the facility on a daily basis. "It will be pretty big once it gets off the ground," McKenzie said.

According to a press release from the company, trucks will haul in dirty waters and haul out clean water in 24 hours. As an added service, Iron Eagle plans to wash out tankers onsite with specialized equipment to prevent cross contamination of dirty trucks and clean water.

The recycling facility will process different types of water collected during the drilling process, the company said. Some can be flowback from the initial drilling and fracturing of a well. There also is brine collected from producing wells and rainwater or melted snow that collects at a drilling pad.

RFI has built its reputation by working with a variety of oil and gas industry companies to treat all types of water, and its expertise will help the facility run smoothly, the company said.

A major benefit of the recycling process is that it reduces concerns about safe treatment and disposal of wastewater from oil and gas drilling, the company said. The contaminants extracted from the recycled water will be transported safely to appropriate disposal sites.

The service saves money for the drilling companies by reducing the amount of fresh water they must purchase for hydraulic fracturing. Additionally, disposal fees don't have to be paid at injection wells, where the wastewater is injected deep into the earth, and water transportation costs are reduced because this is a load-in/load-out facility.

McKenzie said Iron Eagle is planning on opening by the end of November. The company has the necessary permits to begin construction. Once that is completed, officials from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources have to do a walk-through before a permit to begin operation can be given.

"With the government shutdown, it has slowed everything down a bit," he said, referring to the shutdown of the federal government in October.

Sherrodsville's proximity to natural gas wells in Carroll County was the main reason Iron Eagle chose to open its facility there. "Location is always the key," McKenzie said.

The existing structures at the site were enticing, he said, and the previous owner was retiring and willing to sell.

He added that Sherrodsville's mayor and council have been supportive of the project.

Iron Eagle will be hiring workers for the facility, McKenzie noted. "We're looking for help."